CHAPTER II 



GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF LIVE-STOCK PRO- 

 DUCTION 



The West is essentially a live-stock country and must 

 remain such because of the fact that we have an immense 

 quantity of feed in the form of grass and hay which can- 

 not be used directly for support of the human race and 

 which must, therefore, be converted into live-stock be- 

 fore it can serve any useful purpose. This includes the 

 millions of acres of grass, the alfalfa produced in the ir- 

 rigation sections, and the straw, stubble, and waste from 

 the grain fields and meadows. On the cultivated farms 

 the great value of live-stock is to consume waste which 

 would otherwise be unmarketable, and to maintain the 

 fertility of the soil. About the only part of the cultivated 

 areas of the West in which fertility has in any way ma- 

 terially diminished up to date is in the humid sections of 

 western Oregon and Washington. In the other parts 

 fertility is still very high. It behooves all farmers, how- 

 ever, not to allow the fertility to run down, as it is much 

 easier to take land which is already in a good state of 

 fertility and maintain it as such, than to take land which 

 is run down and attempt to restore it. 



BREEDING 



The production of live-stock depends on two things : 

 first, the ability of the animals to multiply or increase 

 their kind, and secondly, their ability to grow, in other 



28 



